In an October 19, 2012 op-ed for Eurasia Review, Katrina Lantos Swett, chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), discusses the main issues of concern facing religious freedom today: barriers to constructing and safely using places of worship and governmental limitations on religious rights. Complicated procedures exist for those wishing to obtain […]

“Last month, the European Commission finally backed a proposal for new laws that intend to cut off EU funding for racist or xenophobic parties and their associated foundations. The proposal demands European political parties and foundations to register officially under EU law to get a new legal status that allows them to receive EU funding. […]

Gyula Kanto, a Roma political activist, and his wife and son have been denied refugee status in Canada. Kanto is known as a Roma civil rights leader in Hungary, and has run for office on that platform. The family greatly fears for their safety in their homeland. In their application for refugee protection, they stated […]

According to JTA, two nationalist politicians in Lithuania are currently being probed for their alleged use of anti-Semitic and Nazi imagery in their elections campaigns. The controversial materials include a Hindu swastika and leaflets that feature “a caricature of a smiling ultra-Orthodox Jew boasting about receiving money from the Lithuanian government.” Read the full JTA […]

“The European Court of Human Rights yesterday delivered a judgment finding discrimination in the case of Fedorchenko and Lozenko v Ukraine. Five Romani people, including three children, died after a violent arson attack, which took place on 28 October 2001 in the Kremenchug region of Ukraine. Three men deliberately set a family home on fire, […]

“A small package bomb exploded inside a kosher grocery store in a Paris suburb Wednesday, according to an agency that tracks anti-Semitic attacks in France.” Source: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/4-injured-package-explodes-paris-kosher-grocery-store-report-article-1.1162995#ixzz277WLkWxG

PRESS RELEASE—FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE London, September 6, 2012 European Jewish Union (EJU) held a conference in Brussels on ‘European Integration and its impact on anti-Semitism’, on September 4, 2012 European Jewish Union CEO Tomer Orni, the organizer of the conference together with the European Jewish Parliament and Tzedek, the Association of European Jewish Lawyers, opened […]

Efraim Zuroff of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem calls mock ad in the Eesti Ekspress weekly a ‘perverted attempt at humor at the expense of the Nazis’ millions of victims.’ THE ASSOCIATED PRESS TALLINN, Estonia – Jewish organizations have denounced an Estonian newspaper for publishing a mock ad for weight-loss pills depicting emaciated prisoners […]

The UCSJ presents here the analytical information from our Ukrainian expert Vyacheslav Likhachev and expresses strong indignation at public verbalization of notorious antisemitic “Blood libel” made by ROC Patriarch Kirill. We are also surprised by the very mild response of FJCR and an absence of protest voices from other Russian Jewish organizations. Larry Lerner, […]

CHISINAU, Moldova (JTA) — To tour the largely empty Jewish communities of Moldova and its capital, Chisinau — once known by Jews the world over as Kishinev — is not to wonder where did all the Jews go but why there are any remaining. Overgrown cemeteries are all that remain of most outlying shtetls and […]